Look from your door, and tell me now
The colour of the sea.
Where can I buy that wondrous dye
And take it home with me?

Compass Cay to Staniel Cay, The BahamasThursday, January 29, 2004

Not that we want to hurry our trip south, but we thought a
week at Compass Cay was probably enough.
Besides, we can always stop, again, on our way north. Then, too, the
Super Bowl was coming up soon and Sandy
wanted to go to a SB party! Staniel Cay,
a place heavy on resort stuff, has a couple of restaurant/bars that were to
host such parties, so we decided to head there.

It’s never quite that simple, though. Howard and Tim (Liberation) heard that Sandy was doing hand wash
and said, “Why not use one of the washers and dryers on Liberation?” (They have two washing machines and two
dryers.) We simply couldn’t turn down an
offer like that! So, while Sandy did laundry Bill
finished up mounting another ceiling fan for Tucker. Finally, we brought the boat to the dock to
top off our water tanks and bid adieu to the gang. Howard and Tim certainly are a fine example
of southern hospitality (they’re from North Carolina).

Laundry Scow

With light winds, we motorsailed the short distance. Sandy
didn’t get the laundry completely dry, so every possible line on the boat was
festooned with socks, underwear, sheets and towels on the ride down. We anchored to the west of Big Majors, a
small cay west of Staniel. We’d do a two-mile dinghy run to get to shore. We
anchored off “Pig Beach” … more later.

Since we got there late, we decided to lay back for the
evening. Frank & Kitty (White Heron) were anchored nearby and they came by
for cocktails.

Staniel Cay, The BahamasFriday, January 30 – Sunday, February 1, 2004

One of our needs was for dinghy fuel. We carry 3½ gallons in the dinghy and another
2½ in a gas can on deck. We poured the
remaining fuel in the dinghy tank and headed to Staniel Cay Yacht Club to
explore, shop for fresh produce and to get gas for the dinghy.

With three grocery stores, Staniel is a favored stop for
cruisers. Now when we say grocery
stores, think of a Turkey Hill, with a lot less! The weekly supply boat stops Wednesdays, so
Wednesday afternoon and Thursday are the best days to shop. We were a day late and we knew our selection
might be limited. There was Isles
General Store, the largest with some hardware, t-shirts, and food. Besides canned goods, there was a small
selection of fresh produce but not even close to what we’d expect in the
smallest mom-and-pop corner store in the states. The “Blue” Store had some grocery items and
you could order homemade Bahamian bread. We didn’t look at the “Pink” Store.
By the way, the Blue and Pink stores are painted to match their names!
We were very happy with our purchases: carrots, eggs, cabbage, celery, apples, potatoes, onions, limes,
cauliflower and broccoli! We were in heaven! Oh, we got a half gallon of milk
and some OJ, too!

Pig Beach is so named because
a few years ago someone put a pig on this otherwise uninhabited island. People came to feed the pig which came to
greet the dinghies at the beach in front of our boat. Another pig was apparently added because now
there are at least six, a huge one (Sandy
thinks it will keel over from a heart attack any day), two sows and several
younger pigs. There are also many cats
and even a herd of at least seven goats.
A fairly steady procession of dinghies approached the beach, most with
handouts for the pigs and cats. Most
seemed to be unaware of the goats who mostly appeared on the beach early in the
morning, bleating and jumping as goats are wont to do. The pigs, however, were actually aggressive
about getting food, even walking into the water as dinghies approached. So far as we know, no people were eaten, but
a few were intimidated and declined to land their dinghies on the beach when
the biggest pig was around.

Feeding Pigs at Big Major's Spot

By now we are getting to know quite a few
fellow cruisers
and we find quite a few boats we already know in each anchorage.
This was no exception. Some were anchored, with us, in Big Majors
Spot, while others were scattered in other anchorages near
Staniel. It’s nice because there is always someone to
socialize with. Of course, there are
always new folks to meet, too.

One of the big attractions at Staniel Cay is a cave known as
Thunderball Cave … that’s right, it was used to
shoot those grotto scenes in the James Bond movie by the same name. Anyway, you can snorkel into the cave,
similar to the ones at the Rocky Dundas.
An added attraction is that people feed the fish in this area. You bring a few crackers in a baggie and
throw a few crumbs into the water.
Magically, the sergeant majors show up within seconds followed by other
fish, all intent on getting all the food for themselves. Thunderball cave was real nice, but not as
spectacular as the ones at Rocky Dundas.

Sandy’s
never been one to read many books … she’s mostly a newspaper and magazine sort.
And, she just doesn’t usually sit still long enough. However, we have lots of free time during
evenings on the boat because there is no TV, no radio, no newspapers and old
magazines. So, books are in! She got turned on to Sue Grafton’s alphabet
series that cover the exploits of Kinsey Millhone, PI, mysteries and has been collecting
and reading them whenever she can. Since
we have limited space for books, Bill’s been reading them, too.

Picking anchorages in the Bahamas is an interesting
business. The Exumas are generally
arranged in a northwest to southeast string with deep water (the sound) to the
northeast and the shallow water (the banks) to the southwest. Much of the year the dominant winds are from
the east. Most good anchorages are
protected from that direction and are calm.
However, if the winds shift to the west, most anchorages then get very
uncomfortable. Also, there is a swift
tidal flow between islands with water rushing from sound to banks as the tide
rises and reversing on a falling tide.
Sometimes, shallow waves, called swells, wrap around protective points,
causing anchored boats to rock from side-to-side. Our second night at Big Majors Spot was
subject to swells and we resorted to sleeping on the settees in the main salon
so that we had a chance at some sleep.

Here, salt gets onto and into
everything. You are in salt water. It splashes on deck when
you sail. It gets on your shoes in the dinghy. And it mixes
with sand and gets carried into
the boat. And, there’s no handy hose to
rinse it off. Fresh water is at a
premium. For the most part, the good
water is gathered into cisterns during rain (infrequent during the
winter) or
made from salt water using reverse osmosis, a slow and expensive
process. Good fresh water costs 40 or 50 cents per
gallon. On the third night in Staniel
Cay, we welcomed a heavy rain that rinsed all the salt from the deck.

Temperature wise, it’s been a relatively cool trip, so
far. Finally, the temps have warmed up a
bit and we’re now seeing 80 degrees for a typical day time high! It is finally warm enough to take a bath in
salt water with Joy (one of the few soaps that suds in salt water) and rinse off
with fresh water on board. It may not
seem like a big thing, but showers are a major consumer of water and washing in
salt water saves lots of expensive, difficult to find, fresh water.

Rental Units at Staniel Cay

Staniel Cay, being resort oriented, sports a couple of
bar/restaurants. One, the Yacht Club,
was closed for cleaning, so we had lunch at the Thunderball Club on Friday
afternoon with Soon and Bill from Gaia.
A couple of nights later, Tim and Howard (Liberation) picked us up to go
to the Super Bowl party at the Yacht Club. All but about half dozen of the packed club
were Patriot fans. They served a great
dinner that included coconut rice!
Delicious. It was a fun evening.

A couple of the boats we met in Compass Cay, Jim &
Sheila (Trust Me, a 42’ Defever trawler)
and Frank & Kitty (White Heron) are also in the anchorage with us in Big
Majors Spot. We had a group dinner on
board Trust Me on Saturday night. Good
food, conversation and getting to know their two cats, Sugar and Spice.